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This is something I spent 5 years working on, alongside my other full length album “City Lights”. It’s an instrumental tale heavily inspired by the Mutiny on the Bounty, both the historical event and the Marlon Brando/Trevor Howard film (surprisingly, I haven’t seen the Mel Gibson/Anthony Hopkins version). Just like the other album, this is intended to be like a movie soundtrack, with the listener picturing the story in their head.

I started working on this sometime during the pandemic; I was bored and in need of attention, so I made a couple of short videos on Instagram that were just me improvising on the guitar. One of those videos featured a very simple riff in F major (technically C but who cares) that had a nautical swing to it, if that makes sense, so I began to envision a song that would start off with some kind of orchestral introduction, similar to the Pirates of the Caribbean theme, before launching into the riff.

From there, I created a project in Ableton that had as many digital orchestral instruments as I could find, and I began writing simple parts for each. I also began writing more parts for the song itself, combing it with an acoustic piece I had written which was in G#. I also married in a riff that I developed in C#, so the song jumps around between 3 different keys.

I added in some VFX, most notably a cannon being fired off like the ending of the “1812 Overture”. I also did a small bit of sound design for the beginning, combining different audio samples to make it sound like a captain walking up to his ship while it’s preparing to depart from port.

The end result was “Setting Sail” which I ended up splitting into two tracks for the final album. What started as a 15 second Instagram reel suddenly became an 8 minute and 40 second song, and then ultimately a full length album around 41 minutes in total.

“Prime Meridian” was constructed in a similar way: Made an Instagram reel featuring me playing a complex two hand tapping riff in 5/4 and got a positive response, so I ended up writing an atmospheric and ethereal track based around it.

“Kicking Clouds” and “An Animal for a Leader” are tongue-in-cheek references to my two favorite artists, Cloudkicker and Animals as Leaders. Each song features techniques that are unique to both artists and both have thematic elements that are crucial to the story: “Kicking Clouds” is another two part song about experiencing a devastating storm while out at sea, where the waves grow so high that they appear to be hitting the sky, or “kicking the clouds”, and the other is about the Captain getting too violent with his reprimands and the moral dilemma facing his First Mate.

This is further fleshed out thematically in the song “Conundrum” which was a challenge to record. The song is mostly acoustic and I recorded it on a zoom recorder in my bedroom in a noisy neighborhood in NYC instead of digitally like the rest of my tracks.

“Polaris” is a song that I wrote when I was a teenager, originally calling it “Stargazer”. I ended up writing a new section for the chorus and articulated it as best I could to emulate the band CHON (RIP). In the story, a drunken sailor is banished to the crow’s nest for the night by the captain and starts to think about his past to distract from the bitter cold.

“Doldrums” is a solo guitar piece that was improvised in one take. I was playing around with writing a doom/stoner/sludge metal-type riff and this is what came out. It’s designed to sound ominous, as in the story, this is when the winds die down and the crew become stagnant on deck, leading to a build up of tension which culminates in the song “In Irons” which is the heaviest song on the album and designed to sound like a massive brawl.

The final track is another two-parter, “Below Deck” and “Mutiny” and it’s the climax of the story. It’s told from different perspectives, from the sailors brewing trouble below deck, to the captain in his quarters quietly reflecting on his career, to the officers at the front of the ship who make a failed last stand to save their captain. The middle section of the song features a stripped down guitar/bass line that’s repeated in unison to help build tension, while the piano represents the officers rallying together and the screeching guitar representing the mutinous sailors fighting their way across the ship. The two instruments clashing together is supposed to represent the final fight for the ship with the sailors coming out on top.

I’ve gone through several iterations of this album over the last year, from re-recording individual parts dozens of times to hundreds of different mixes and masters for each of the 12 songs. I have two version on soundcloud that showcase the progression of my audio production skills, with this version being the final one. I’ve done all I could to fix and repair these tracks but the truth is I recorded each of them during different times over a 5 year period, and despite my best efforts to keep a consistent tone, I was constantly changing my gear and techniques during those times, so everything sounds slightly different. That being said, I’m proud of my technical ability and the fact I was able to envision something like this to begin with, and despite it not being the best, I’m happy with how it turned out.

Lastly: the album cover is a painting from my parents house. It was made sometime at the beginning of the 20th century by English artist J. James.

And with that, bon voyage:

Captain Coming Aboard

We start in port as the ship is being loaded up for departure. The captain approaches, with the first mate announcing his arrival to the rest of the sailors. After bringing aboard the necessary provisions and briefing the crew, the captain gives the command and the ship makes course for the open sea.

Setting Sail

As the ship is leaving port, they fire off a few rounds in celebration. The crew is jubilant, energetic and used to the monotonous routine of ship life, with the daytime bustling with activity and the nighttime being more relaxed, but still busy. The first mate reflects on the journey thus far, with a small bit of skepticism regarding his captain and the course that’s being set. Suddenly, the ship is hit by a massive thunderstorm, enduring rough seas and piercing rain as they push to get out into the open ocean. The crew and the ship endure, suffering some minor damage and a small drop in moral, but spirits remain high as they finally make it to the ocean.

The Calm Before

The crew enjoys a quiet morning of peaceful weather only to see gray clouds quickly begin diluting the blue sky. Concern grows of a potentially bigger storm on the horizon as the winds begin to pickup.

Kicking Clouds

The ship is hit with a second storm, with the waves growing so large that seem to be hitting the bottom of the sky. The first mate tries to scream orders but is quickly drowned out by the crashing waves and the pounding rain. Below deck, a heavy food barrel breaks free and begins rolling around, causing internal damage to the ship. The crew rushes to secure it but are hindered by the rolling waves, so the first mate makes a strategic decision to align the ship with the waves briefly, allowing a pause in the motion so the crew could restrain the barrel. The captain immediately appears on deck and countermands the order, pushing the ship back into the waves. The sailors below deck are quickly thrown around, with the still unsecured food barrel slamming into one unsuspecting seaman as he tries to regain his footing. He’s instantly killed by the impact as the crew manage to break open the barrel to reduce the weight. As the storm slowly dies down, the first mate and captain begin arguing on deck when word reaches them of the accident. The first mate is heartbroken, knowing his order could have prevented this death, and insists to the captain that they stop to allow for a proper burial. The captain is undeterred and shows no remorse, scolding the first mate for trying to take command of the ship and heads back on deck, leaving the now disgruntled first mate to supervise the unceremonious disposal of the body.

Prime Meridian

The crew limps on, licking their wounds from the previous two storms. Despite this, the captain continues to press the crew, pushing them to their limits. As they cross into the western hemisphere, the crew is treated to a beautiful night’s sky and a rare moment of tranquility.

An Animal for a Leader

Having been overworked for weeks, the crew is hit with another hardship after the captain begins to tighten food and water rations for everyone on board, officers included. The sailors look to the first mate for leadership even though he’s essentially powerless to stop the tyrannical nature of the captain. In private, he laments his lack of authority and begins considering taking action against the captain, which is quickly forgotten as cries of “LAND HO!” echo across the ship.

Conundrum

The ship finally arrives at it’s destination, an unnamed tropical island in the pacific inhabited by a local population friendly to their cause. Before allowing the sailors shore leave, the captain informs them of the ship’s overall mission, which is to study, cultivate and transport a special type of plant that could help feed entire populations if grown and harvested correctly. The captain makes several racist remarks regarding the island’s natives, warning the crew not to be “infected by them”. He then dismisses them and heads to his quarters, leaving the first mate in charge of meeting the island’s king. The first mate dismisses the potential slight and leads the crew ashore, greeting the islanders with respect and providing gifts for the king. The king welcomes them with open arms, inviting them to a feast and celebration later in the day. During the celebration, the first mate attracts the attention of the king’s daughter, but quickly suppresses his desire, thinking it as being an insult to the king, and heads back to the ship. The king, outraged that the first mate would reject his daughter, follows to the ship and demands an audience with the captain, declaring that if the first mate doesn’t return to his daughter, there will be no deal. The captain, now faced with a moral dilemma of his own, summons his first mate and commands him to “make love to that damn daughter of his”, to which the first mate pauses and then replies “Is that an order, Sir?”. He then departs back to shore and into the open arms of the king’s daughter. The crew then enjoy several weeks of rest and relaxation as the ship’s botanist conducts his necessary research, with the captain remaining on the ship for the entire time, never once going to shore. The first mate begins to notice the captain acting more aggressively as the crew readies the ship for their homeward journey, which re-ignites his concerns.

Polaris

The ship finally departs the island after weeks ashore but the crew is now sloppy and unprepared after their “vacation”. One of the officers, a 19 year old midshipman, gets a bit too carried away with the grog one evening while on duty and invokes the ire of the captain, who orders him to spend the night in the crows nest as punishment. Forced to endure the bitter cold winds, the young officer looks up at the north star, drunkenly recalling his teenage years before drifting off to sleep.

Doldrums

Idle hands makes the devil’s work as the winds begin to die down and the sailors begin to experience cabin fever and boredom. Tension builds between the officers and sailors, but the captain appears either indifferent or unaware of the growing problem.

In Irons

The crew finally reaches their breaking point after weeks of bad weather, no winds, and an abusive captain. A fight breaks out on deck between several of the sailors, with the officers on board unable to maintain order. In a fit of rage, the captain orders several of the men to be held in the bowels of the ship, in iron chains, until they can be taken back home for court martial. He tells his officers to only let them out for work duties only and to limit their rations and water, effectively working them to death as a result of their infractions. He also orders several others to face the lash, making the remaining crew watch as he has them savagely beaten with a cat o’ nine tails before dousing the open wounds with salt water. He then orders the crew back to work, indifferent to their newfound disgust and distrust of him and his leadership. The first mate, still irritate but composed, reminds the captain that his rank is that of a gentleman’s and that no one in such a position should be that emotionless, saying it makes him sick to see. The captain simply laughs, telling him to “Go be sick in your own cabin.” The nearby sailors look at the first mate with shock as he leaves speechless.

Below Deck

Trouble continues to brew on deck and below, as most of the officers begin to mimic their captain’s harshness and ill temper, despite the best efforts of the first mate to put the needs of the sailors first. Some of the officers begin sympathizing with the sailors, while the rest remain steadfast in their distrust of the crew. Talks about taking action suddenly echo throughout the lower levels of the ship as the crew hits their limit for mistreatment. The captain then re-instates the strict water and food rations for the crew, thus setting the stage for a full blown riot.

Mutiny

The crew finally snaps after having their water and food rations limited while being severely overworked by the ungrateful captain and loyal squadron of officers. Joining forces with the first mate and a few of the officers who refused to fall in line, the crew begin their mutiny and seize control of the helm. Awoken in his cabin by the noise, the captain quickly realizes his situation and begins to reflect on his career, wondering how he ended up in this situation. Suddenly, the door bursts open and he’s quickly swept away by the ensuing tide of bodies. Meanwhile, on the other end of the ship, the remaining loyalists gather and begin to prepare their last stand. Prayers and words of encouragement are shared between them, but it’s no match for the onslaught headed their way. They clash with the mutinous sailors but fail to overcome them and rescue their captain. The victorious crew takes complete control of the ship, forcing the captain and his followers into one of the lifeboats. The captain and his small crew are left to their fate as the main ship sets course for parts unknown, with the first mate now at the helm.

Background: I make music entirely for fun and as a way to sharpen my audio production skills. I don’t charge money and rarely ever promote it on social media, because this is entirely for me, not for you or anyone else. It’s not about likes or popularity, because at the end of the day, the only audience that I care to impress is myself. These are songs that I want to hear, which is why I went through the painstaking process of writing, recording, mixing and mastering each one to the best of my abilities. And I leave up the bad examples because I want there to be a documented timeline of my progression in audio production.

So far, with the 4 albums I made in 2025, I’ve generated over 27,000 listens across SoundCloud, Spotify, Tik Tok and Instagram. Again, this is without all the annoying self-promotion that so many artists are forced into nowadays, as I refuse to subject myself to that level of humiliation. I will never “film content” and I cringe whenever I see my idols and peers trying to appease the algorithm.

Onto the music:

The first track is called "Botulism Was A Red Herring", and it’s LOUD. This is for my metal project which is just my last name, Curtins. It’s instrumental, syncopated, heavily layered, a bit atmospheric, and extremely heavy. I wanted to combine the off-time chugs of Meshuggah with the textural layering of Cloudkicker and the thumping of Animals As Leaders, three of my biggest musical influences. All guitar parts were recorded using a headless 8 string guitar tuned to drop E (EBEAEABE) and the drums were programmed manually using GetGoodDrums. The album cover was also designed by me using Krita and a free photo of a evil- looking seagull.

The second track is for my other musical project, Babe Vigoda, which is more synth-oriented and designed to be more relaxing. The song is called “Old Moons” and it’s again entirely instrumental. All guitar, bass and keyboards parts were recorded live, and the drums were again programmed manually. The album cover was also designed by myself using an old photography of my grandfather (man on the right). The song is directly inspired by the Zero 7 song "Destiny", which is one of my favorite and one of the greatest music videos of all time, and the title comes from one of the lyrics (“Old moons fade into the new”.)

No AI was used in the writing, recording, mixing and mastering of both songs. I used Izotope Ozone for the mastering and only used their AI features to AB it vs. my mix. For those that don’t know what that means: I had the AI generate it’s own mix for my tracks, then compared it back and forth to the mixes that I had made without AI. I’m incredibly proud of what I’ve accomplished and will hopefully turn each song into separate full length records by the end of the year.

The ones who stick around after their set to watch the other bands on the bill.

The ones who get star-struck when meeting their personal heroes.

The ones who backup their opening acts and support newer bands.

The ones who engage with the crowd, onstage and off.

The ones who take a step back on stage to let others share in the spotlight.

The ones who never let their own success or ego get in the way of enjoying the very thing that brought them both.

The ones who still get excited to see their favorite band live and the ones who join that band just because of how much they love the repertoire.

The late Ozzy Osbourne has a great line about this: “I have a genuine love affair with my audience. When I’m on stage, they’re not privileged to see me, it’s a privilege for me to see them.”

Music is a collaboration, not a competition. The more we share and appreciate, the better it is.

RIP Bob Weir.

Bandcamp

Spotify

SoundCloud

YouTube

The album was written, recorded, produced, mixed and mastered entirely by myself, and I performed all of the instrumentation except for the drums, which I programmed manually. No AI was used, not even the feature that Izotope offers with their software to help you mix, and I take pride in what I was able to accomplish here because it took 5 years of tooling around before I was finally able to get it to sound proper. Audio production ain’t easy, folks.

The idea is that this album is a soundtrack to a movie that doesn’t actually exist. I wanted it to sound like something you’d hear in a schlocky 80’s action film, because the music in those movies are always top tier and synth heavy. So, in lieu of there being any visual accompaniment, I decided to write one instead. Maybe one day it’ll get turned into something like that, but for now this is all I got.

Also I ripped the name Fuzzy Dunlop from The Wire and Rolling Papyrus from History of the World, Part 1. I don’t do homages, I do heists.

Anyways, onto the story:

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Outrunning

Our main character, Fuzzy, wakes up in middle of the night in a darken alley, unsure of how or where he is. He begins to feel some kind of presence chasing him as he tries to regain his senses and get his bearings. He’s in his early 20’s and his left arm shows a few track marks, implying him to be a drug user of some kind. He’s wearing a sleeveless and spiked leather jacket with dark denim jeans and combat boots, looking like he just stumbled out of an early hardcore show. He has no piercings but a series of tattoos around his right arm and chest, and as he stumbles to his feet, we see that he’s of average height and build with olive-toned skin and bushy hair. He quickly begins moving towards the street as he feels his heart rate growing faster, being amplified by the alleged mysterious figure observing him from the other end of the alley, which is left ambiguous if it’s a figment of his imagination and paranoia or if it’s real… Finally, he makes it onto the street, a decrepit, trash-filled hellscape reminiscent of pre-Giuliani New York City, and begins his quest for redemption.

Fuzzy Dunlop (The Ballad of)

Fuzzy’s life is revealed along with the hardships he currently faces. He’s been in and out of the system since he was a teen, having a problem with authority and respect. He’s forced to live a life of petty street crime, narrowly avoiding cops during the day and various street gangs at night. He realizes he can’t keep this up and is forced to make a deal with the mob to try and save his chance at having a future. However, unbeknownst to him, the mob has plans to set him up as Fuzzy was responsible for supplying the drugs that killed one of their top lieutenant’s daughter, who is implied to have been pregnant with Fuzzy’s child. We see this through a series of brief, wordless flashbacks, ending with Fuzzy having an emotional breakdown as he remembers what he’s lost.

F.A.C.E.

Fuzzy goes to a meeting with the mob, a notoriously sinister underground society known for their thematic induction rituals and punishments for those that betray them. The actual name is a closely guarded secret, not known to anyone outside of the organization, so everyone on the street refers to them as “F.A.C.E.”, which stands for “Fiends And Crooked Entities” in relation to their shadiness, but also a reminder that any random face you see in the crowd could be a member, so they’re always watching and observing. The mob makes a proposal to Fuzzy: transport a shipment of narcotics to a local gang and report back with the money. A car will be provided, with the trunk carrying the payload, and a small amount of the drugs will be given to Fuzzy as he is to personally hand over to the gang so they can test the product for it’s purity. He is told to report back tomorrow night, so he heads back to his apartment, walking past several homeless folks, prostitutes, addicts, graffiti artists and other nocturnal creatures.

In Time

Arriving home at his cramped and messy studio apartment, Fuzzy tries to cheer himself up and says that things will work out, in time. He rolls a joint and fades off to sleep, envisioning a happier life for himself. He wakes up the next day, sometime in the early afternoon, and begins to get ready for his assignment.

Rolling Papyrus

Fuzzy reports to the warehouses to pickup up the car. His instructions are clear: Take the drugs to a group of dealers and bring back the cash. They’ll wanna test the product before making the transaction, so Fuzzy will provide them with a small sample that he’ll carry on his person, whereas the rest of the shipment will remain in the car until the deal is done. What isn’t made clear is that the sample is spiked, with the thought being that the once the gang realizes the product is tainted, they’ll murder Fuzzy on the spot for trying to set them up. And in case that fails, the drugs in the back of the car have a bomb hidden inside to take him out if things go awry. Blissfully unaware, Fuzzy gets in the car and heads out.

City Lights

Fuzzy races down the highway as the lights from downtown come into view. He stops at a red light and smiles at the car next to him before peeling off, blasting music and banging his head as he does. He eventually attracts the attention of a local patrol officer, who flashes his lights and siren in pursuit, but Fuzzy manages to give him the slip and evade capture. He pulls up in front of the gang’s HQ and turns the engine off.

Happy Accident

After arriving outside the meeting spot and stepping out of his car, Fuzzy hears gunfire nearby and quickly runs for cover. Realizing the gunfire is coming from inside the gang’s HQ, he waits for it to die down and moves to nearby window to get a better view. What he sees makes he gasp, as it’s a bloodbath inside. A group of robbers had attempted to break in moments before Fuzzy’s arrival, and in the ensuing shootout, the gang was killed or severely wounded and the robbers were forced to retreat. Fuzzy then notices a briefcase full of money sitting on a nearby table, but as he does, he begins to hear sirens off in the distance. Without thinking clearly, he picks up an empty bottle from the gutter and breaks the window, quickly climbing through and grabbing the briefcase. He manages to get back to the car, briefcase in all, and drives away before the cop arrive on the scene. After driving for a few blocks, he parks his car and stashes the briefcase in the trunk, walking away down the alley to see if the cops or anyone else has followed him.

Off the Clock

As he’s waiting in the alley, we see the same mysterious figure from before observing him, but Fuzzy doesn’t notice him this time. Thinking he’s in the clear, Fuzzy begins to congratulate himself for his quick wit, having gotten the money and the drugs without having to do any of the heavy lifting. He then remembers the sample that he has on him, and makes an ill-fated decision to indulge in the drugs, foolishly thinking of it as a reward for his “hard work”. As he begins to feel the effects of the drugs, he slowly begins to lose consciousness, experiencing a whirlwind of hallucinations as the world swirl together all around him. Realizing the drugs are tainted, he begins to panic and tries to stumble out to the street as he did in the first song, but the poison eventually gets the best of him and he collapses next to the car. Sirens can be heard in the distance as an onlooker rushes to try and help him. The mysterious figure shakes his head and disappears.

Sunrise

Fuzzy is revived in the back of the ambulance, watching the sun rise from the back-window. He sees the lights of the city start to blend into the morning light as the paramedics attempt to try and talk to him, which just sounds like gibberish to him due to his current state. He’s also handcuffed to the stretcher, as the cops discovered the money, drugs and bomb that was in the car.

Rehab

Fuzzy is taken to a minimal security medical facility in an attempt to detox from the spiked narcotics. After a few days, he begins to recover and regain his wits, but soon finds himself in an interrogation room, being questioned about the narcotics and his connection to F.A.C.E. Being that he has a problem with authority, Fuzzy remains quite, responding like a child when pressed to talk. This causes the officers to beat him senselessly. Bloody and bruised, Fuzzy is then told about the bomb, and realizes that F.A.C.E. set him up. As he’s taken back to this room, he notices a strange car parked in the nearby parking lot, with two shadowy looking figures sitting inside. He deduces they’re here to kill him, so in a panic, he decides to make his escape.

Prepwork

Anticipating an attack from F.A.C.E., Fuzzy decides to break out of rehab and extract his revenge. Waiting until 3AM, he manages to slip out of his room and into a supply closet, where he finds an old janitor uniform. Swapping his clothes, he takes a mop and bucket and begins to walk towards the main lobby, pretending to one of the cleaning staff. The nurses and guards seem oblivious, as it’s the graveyard shift and they’re barely awake to begin with. As he’s walking past one of the nurses stations, he notices an unattended vial of the same antidote that was given to him to counter the poison, which he quickly pockets before the nurse can return. The doors for the main lobby are magnetically sealed, but as Fuzzy is walking towards it, the doors suddenly open as two of the guards are leading in newly received patient. They barely pay Fuzzy any attention, and Fuzzy manages to walk right the front door, mop in hand. He sees the same car from before, but realizes the men inside are asleep, so without making a scene, he quietly walks towards the nearby fence, using the mop handle to pull apart the barbed wire just enough for his skinny frame to slip through. He’s almost caught trying to get over the fence as a night patrol stops to check out the noise, but after not seeing him, the guard walks off. Fuzzy heads into the woods before coming out on a main road several miles away. He hitchhikes back to the city, but as he approaches his apartment, he sees several police cars outside, so he heads for his friend’s house nearby and breaks in once he realizes his friend isn’t home. Rummaging through his stuff, Fuzzy discovers a 9mm pistol alongside a black leather jacket inside the bedroom closet. He dons both and heads out, destine for F.A.C.E.’s HQ.

Showdown

Fuzzy storms F.A.C.E.’s HQ, shooting his way through each level of the building. Having run low on ammo, he begins using the guns of the fallen mob members, with the firepower slowly increasing each time. He finally ends up at the top level armed with an M16 carbine, only to be struck in the neck by a poison dart from a hidden trap. Coated in the same poison that drugs were spiked with, Fuzzy immediately begins to feel the effects and feels his entire body begin to slowly shutdown. However, having stolen some antidote from the hospital before his escape, he manages to overcome the toxin and regain his composure. He then enters a room with the leaders of the mob sitting at a round-table, but before they can speak, he unloads his clip into the room and begins laughing maniacally as he does so. Finally, with the adrenaline now coming down, he notices that he’s been shot in the lower abdomen and that he’s slowly bleeding out. Limping his way outside, Fuzzy manages to stumble into an alley which is the last we see of him as police sirens are heard in the distance. When officers arrive, they discover a trail of blood leading away from the crime scene and into the alley. All they find of Fuzzy is a blood-soaked leather jacket on the ground next to a dumpster, leaving our main character’s fate unknown…

How many times have you searched something on Google within the last year and gotten a completely inaccurate AI summary? How many times have you been on social media and seen a video depicting something nonsensical and uncanny? How many family members and friends do you have that can’t tell when they’re consuming AI generated media, and more importantly, how many times have you fallen for it yourself?

I have a small advantage in being able to sniff out AI content, just because I worked in post-production for many years and can spot audio/visual mistakes a mile away, but I fall for it just as much as the everyone else does. Thankfully, there’s better minds out there that have been leading the charge of flagging AI content, acting like the town crier in the comment section to try and make people more aware of what they’re consuming visually.

AI-generated music, on the other hand, is much harder to detect, and becoming a rising problem for this very reason, as most people can’t tell the difference between something that was made by a human and something that was stolen by a machine. I choose my words very carefully here because I have nothing but vitriol for people that use AI to “make” music:

You’re not a musician, you’re not a producer, you’re not a songwriter, you’re not an audio engineer, and you don’t deserve an ounce of recognition, celebration or support. I hope no one ever acknowledges the garbage you put out because all you’re doing is stealing from actual artists. You haven’t created anything, and will never be able to do so because you lack talent.

And let me be clear: I support and encourage everyone to make music regardless of their skill level, because contrary to popular belief: you don’t have to know music theory or even be able to play an instrument to be a musician, you just need to be creative and not be lazy about it. Creativity is based on life experiences and it’s beautiful in it’s uniqueness between different people. Using AI for music production takes all of that uniqueness out of the process and leaves behind a diluted, soulless and unoriginal product that steals all it’s creative ideas from other works, which is a controversial topic in itself. The concept of “stealing” in music is both universal and the fuel for innovation, because when a musician does this, they don’t regurgitate the idea, they put their own creative spin on it and create something brand new.

To further demonstrate this point, let’s examine the use of sampling in music. Sampling is similar to AI in that it’s taking other people’s work and using it to make something new, but the key difference is the songs being made from those samples sound completely different to the original works.

For example, the song “Cinema” by Benny Benassi and Gary Go and it’s remix by Skrillex. Same vocal track, completely different chord progressions, melodies, instrumentation, etc. Skrillex took the song and translated it into his own words, thus creating something new that doesn’t rip off the original work.

Another example: “Shook Ones pt. II” by Mobb Deep, one of the most iconic songs ever created from sampling. Three different songs were sampled, and the final product sounds nothing like any of them.

Here’s an example of someone sampling an entire movie to make a song.

Or how about someone mashing up hundreds of popular songs to create an entire album?

Here’s an example of a musician who not only allowed another musician to take his work and re-purpose it, he even helped him to do so: “Call On Me” by Eric Prydz samples the chorus from the Steve Winwood song “Valerie”, and the story goes that Winwood loved Prydz’s version so much that he went into the studio and re-recorded the vocal part so Prydz could have a cleaner sample in the final product.

Here’s an example of a band taking another artist’s work and incorporating it into their own song while still giving credit to the original: the chorus from the Fall Out Boy’ song “Centuries” is taken directly from the Suzanne Vega song “Tom’s Diner”. They even gave Vega a songwriting credit because of this.

Here’s an example of an artist re-imagining another artist’s track to create something new entirely: John Coltrane’s “Countdown” is a re-harmonized version of Mile Davis’ “Tune-Up”. Both are jazz standards but sound drastically different, yet are built on the same musical concept.

Here’s another example of this kind of referencing: The songs “Stagger Lee” by Lloyd Price and “Wrong ‘Em Boyo” by The Clash. Both songs tell the same story about Stagger Lee shooting Billy over a gambling debt, but both sound stylistically different. The Clash even begins their song by playing the chord progression from the original before launching into their own unique blend of punk and ska.

I’m guilty of this as well. This is a song that I published a few months ago, having recorded and produced it entirely by myself without the use of AI. The intro of that song is taken almost note for note from the intro of “Extraneous” by Periphery, even though both songs sound completely different otherwise. And to add another layer here: Periphery is a band that’s been quite vocal about this topic as it was started by one guy as a way of paying tribute to his favorite band, Meshuggah.

In each of these examples, the artists took something that wasn’t created by them and re-imagined it, translating it into their own unique language. They used it as a tool to create something new, giving credit to the original work without ripping it off. This is what separates the man from the machine:

AI doesn’t give credit. AI doesn’t acknowledge where it’s taken it’s ideas from and doesn’t add anything unique or original to the final product. And AI doesn’t pay royalties.

This is why I view people who use AI to make music as nothing more than con men, scam artists and thieves. By crediting yourself alone with the final product, you take money out of the pockets of actual musicians like myself, which is great because we already don’t get paid for the work that we do, so all you’re doing is hurting the industry with your inferior product.

You’re not a musician. You’re a bum, or, in the words of Bea Arthur: “A Bullshit Artist”.